Step back in time with Google’s secret text-adventure game | Computing

Are you feeling a bit nostalgic for the days of Zork and other classic text adventure games? If so, then Google has you covered with an Easter egg embedded in its website. A Reddit user discovered that searching for a particular phrase on the site and then accessing the developer console in your browser presents an option to begin a text-based quest. Best of all, in true 1980s fashion, the console starts off by asking, “Would you like to play a game?”

To access the text-based adventure game, head to Google in your favorite web browser, and search for the phrase “text adventure.” Once the search results page is displayed, open your browser’s developer console. If you are using Google’s Chrome web browser, you can access the developer tool by heading to the View menu, selecting Developer, and then Javascript Console.

Once you have acknowledged that you would indeed like to play a game, you are thrown into a world of text-based fun. Your adventure begins with you playing as the Google logo, although you aren’t quite yourself as you are missing the majority of your letters. Finding yourself inside a building, you must navigate the world and seek out your missing letters.

If you never played a text adventure game before, take the time to enjoy Google’s blast from the past. From a time when graphics weren’t yet able to stand up to the challenge, gamers played interactive stories in text consoles, using their imaginations to dive deep into mystical worlds. With the latest gaming graphics being continuously touted as essential for complete immersion, text-adventure games are a fun way to remember that a game’s story is just as important.

The Google Easter egg itself doesn’t seem to be available on international sites, so if you want to give the text adventure a try, be sure to head to Google.com and not one of its global variations. Some speculation has lead players to guess that the setting the game is set within is Google’s Mountain View, California, campus and the surrounding area. Additionally, those who have completed the game say it takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.

We’re not sure how long Google intends to keep the Easter egg in its site code, so be sure to head on over and have some fun, just in case time is limited.